Today was great! I got the apartment reasonably straightened up (or as much as you can when it seems like a toy store has exploded in the living room!) and made the sauce for my lasagna, then my family arrived despite the fact that winter finally decided to drop a bit of snow on us.

We chatted in the living room for a bit, then we opened gifts. I got some great things that I had wanted. Amanda and Neal got me a sandwich grill and a hairdryer (my hairdryer worked but the switch was broken so it needed to be unplugged to turn it off), and my parents got me a hand blender and perhaps best of all, a new battery charger with four AA batteries. My old charger probably still works but the batteries were dying out after almost six years. When I tried to use them in my camera, they would fizzle out way too quickly and just wouldn’t hold a charge. I am so happy to have new ones because it’s hard being a digital camera addict when the batteries can only hold out for about ten pictures!

Hayley was ecstatic, especially over the fact that she managed to get my sister and my mother both to come play in the ball pit with her. She showed everyone all her new toys and talked everyone’s ears off. Breanna was in great spirits and charmed everyone. She spent a great deal of time playing ball with my dad and even sat on his lap for awhile. I think that meant a lot to my dad because at that age Hayley was having some strong “stranger” anxiety where she didn’t want to go to anyone other than myself or George, and she was a little afraid of his beard too; Breanna thinks his beard is neat and had a great time playing with him.

Breanna went down by about 9 pm, crashing on my shoulder before I deposited her in the crib. Hayley held out until everyone left at about 11:30. She was exhausted but there was no way she would have gone to sleep with them here, especially Auntie Amanda. I put her to bed, and she was sad because she couldn’t find her baby that she sleeps with (a little bunny in a blue dress) but she hugged her new Pablo of the Backyardigans, a gift from Amanda and Neal, and although I promised to bring her baby in if I found her, Hayley was sound asleep when I came back in with the bunny two minutes later.

Supper was good. I made two big lasagnas, George made garlic bread, we had a bottle of red wine, and we still had some ice cream log cake for dessert. It was nice to meet Neal, he is a really great guy and I’m happy that my sister is with someone who is obviously very good for – and to – her. He fit in well, making jokes and playing with the kids, and it was good to get to know someone important in my sister’s life.

Even though they were here for almost eight hours, I wish that we could have had a longer visit or that there was time to squeeze in one more get-together before they leave on the 28th. I’m ecstatic that Amanda lives where she wanted to be for so long, but I miss her when she goes home. Still, it was a great Christmas to have her here for a day anyway.

The kids got a lot of great stuff too and I think I’m going to have to do some re-arranging to put their new toys on the shelves and whatnot, and pack away some of the old ones. Tomorrow is another regular day after all the festivities so they can just play and take it easy, and hopefully they’ll both sleep in a bit to make up for the excitement and late nights.

I have a ton of pictures but it’s almost midnight and I’m thinking bed sounds mighty fine right now so those will have to wait!